Hawaii Governor David Ige signed a bill Friday that raises the legal smoking age in the state to 21.
The law, which is the first of its kind in the U.S., will take effect in January 2016.
"Raising the minimum age as part of our comprehensive tobacco control efforts will help reduce tobacco use among our youth and increase the likelihood that our keiki (children) will grow up to be tobacco-free," the governor said, according to Reuters.
The new bill will also ban people under the age of 21 from buying, using or selling electronic cigarettes. Violators will be fined $10 for the first offense and $50 or mandatory community service for the succeeding offenses, ABC News reported.
"Hold on to your butt!" Hawai'i, we're the first state in the nation to raise the legal smoking age to 21! pic.twitter.com/p03RbCSpGl
— Governor David Ige (@GovHawaii) June 20, 2015
Jessica Yamauchi, executive director of the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii, is optimistic that the bill will have a "tremendous impact" in decreasing the prevalence of smoking.
"By really limiting the access it will really help to curb the prevalence," she said, ABC News reported. The governor's office said that 86 percent of adult smokers in Hawaii began smoking before they reached 21.
A study conducted by researchers from the University of Hawaii said that 30 percent of teenagers in the state aged 14 to 16 have experimented with e-cigarettes, raising worries that these young people would eventually jump to using conventional cigarettes, according to The Independent.
Cigarette smoking is responsible for 480,000 deaths in the U.S. every year. After Hawaii has taken a strong stance in restricting teenage cigarette smoking by raising the legal smoking age to 21, other states are expected to follow suit. Washington, California, Utah and New Jersey are already considering taking a similar step.
